Our Wonderful Bible

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Part 1 How It All Began

Chapter 1-1

God And The Bible

Chapter 1-2

The Creation

Chapter 1-3

A New World

Chapter 1-4

Divine Rescue

Part 2 The Birth

Chapter 2-1

The Start Of It All

Chapter 2-2

Finding The Right Person

Chapter 2-3

Further Steps On The Way

Chapter 2-4

The Twelve Tribes

Chapter 2-5

And So To Egypt

Chapter 2-6

The Pregnancy

Chapter 2-7

A Nation Is Born

Part 3 Early Education

Chapter 3-1

Finding The Solution

Chapter 3-2

The Covenant

Chapter 3-3

The Golden Calf

Chapter 3-4

The Tabernacle

Chapter 3-5

The Priesthood

Chapter 3-6

Towards The Promised Land

Chapter 3-7

Joshua And The Judges

Chapter 3-8

Give Us A King!

Chapter 3-9

Ups And Downs

Part 4 A Teacher Comes

Chapter 4-1

Many Prophecies

Chapter 4-2

Birth, Life, And Death Prophecies

Chapter 4-3

Yahweh’s Problem

Chapter 4-4

Yahweh’s Solution

Chapter 4-5

The One Who Came

Chapter 4-6

The Teacher’s Birth

Chapter 4-7

The Teacher’s Life

Chapter 4-8

Immanuel

Part 5 Death Of The Teacher

Chapter 5-1

The Lamb Of God

Chapter 5-2

The Passover Lamb

Part 6 The Aftermath

Chapter 6-1

Two Battles Of Champions

Chapter 6-2

The First Ascension

Chapter 6-3

Who Did Jesus Say He Was?

Chapter 6-4

The Way, The Truth, And The Life

Part 7 Problems And Solutions

Chapter 7-1

Death, Burial, And Resurrection

Chapter 7-2

Retrieving What Was Lost

Chapter 7-3

Who Is This Jesus?

Chapter 7-4

To Die For All

Chapter 7-5

A Sinless Human

Chapter 7-6

Sin Of Blasphemy

Chapter 7-7

King Of The Jews

Chapter 7-8

High Priest

Part 8 A New Creation

Chapter 8-1

New Life

Chapter 8-2

Water Baptism

Chapter 8-3

Spirit Baptism

Chapter 8-4

Sons Of God

Chapter 8-5

Prayers Of Commitment

Part 9 Eternal Life

Chapter 9-1

Eternity

Chapter 9-2

Abundant Food

Chapter 9-3

Walking On Water

Chapter 9-4

Bread From Heaven

Chapter 9-5

Spirit And Life Words

Chapter 9-6

A Miracle Every Day

Chapter 9-7

Recognise His Body

Part 10 May They Be One

Chapter 10-1

That Last Passover

Chapter 10-2

What Is Man?

Chapter 10-3

The Perfect Man

Chapter 10-4

May They Be One

Chapter 10-5

The Bride Of Christ

Chapter 10-6

The Wedding Of The Lamb

Chapter 10-7

The Grand Finale

Part A Appendices

Chapter A-1

Amen! Amen!

Chapter A-2

The Israelite Calendar

PREFACE

How It Came About

By way of introduction I would like to describe just how this book ever came to be written in the first place. I certainly had no intention initially of writing a book or even a chapter, let alone one comprising so many parts. This whole project came about as the result of my being asked a question by a friend of ours, and in the beginning my answer was only expected to amount to about a page. I still have doubts about whether I can answer that original question! The question she asked was simple, namely "Why all this killing? The answer did not turn out to be so easy, however, and the whole thing soon began to grow. The original question was shelved, and I am afraid it is still on the shelf, because the Lord kept giving me new things to look at! So the whole project has just grown and grown ever since. I suppose that if I had known beforehand just what the future had in store I might never have started in the first place, and that just goes to show how deep are the ways of our God Yahweh!

The book itself did not begin life as an account of what the Bible is actually about, but it just grew in a haphazard way—well that’s how it seemed to me, but maybe not so to God—and actually began with Part 5, ‘Death Of The Teacher’. The Part numbers I’m using here are, of course, the present ones. Then, with the crucifixion, I felt, amply discussed, it seemed right to consider just why Jesus died and the whole subject of giving one’s life to him. The problems which are tackled in his death and the wonderful solutions provided by Yahweh then rightly follow on, and so what is now Part 7, ‘Problems And Solutions’ naturally began to take shape. Since then, I have added a Part 6, which describes some events that I believe happened immediately after his death.

At that time the crucifixion seemed to me, as it does to many others, to be the whole point of the Bible story, but as time has gone by and further Parts have been written, I have now come to the conclusion that it is instead simply a step on the way, albeit a truly vital step of paramount importance. It is in effect a doorway. And if you read this book from beginning to end, you will no doubt find out why!

However, Part 5 goes into a fair amount of detail about events which occurred during the crucifixion and before and after it and compares them stage by stage with those things which all the Israelites were commanded to do during their momentous exit from Egypt, known as the Exodus.

This of course led to thinking about the Exodus itself and why it was necessary, and then quite naturally I felt that I had to consider also why this nation of Israel should be singled out and be forever known as the ‘Chosen People’. And so the beginning Parts started life before, I would hasten to say, the other ones already started had been finished. The way that it happened, as it came about, caused a major disturbance, because I began to realise at that time that the creation was a spiritual one, and not physical. And that fact, coming to me so late in the development of the story, meant that I had to do some major revision.

But that is the tale of the whole of it, a truly fluid ‘happening’, which, had it not been conceived and written under the baton of Yahweh himself, would certainly have ended up as a collection of random jottings. In the end however I realised that I was actually writing an account of what the Bible is really about, and the whole book took on its present shape—thankfully a consistent story.

That, I think, gives some idea of the randomness which has been present continually—it simply shows that Yahweh was really the one at the helm, and I had to be led, I knew not where. I think that that is fairly obvious, but I feel I should not try to obscure it unless God leads me so to do.

My Approach

From the start of writing this book my approach has always been one of aiming to be led solely by the Spirit of God. Thus I have sought to avoid being influenced in any way by the writings of other human beings, and so there are only one or two references to such items, and my knowledge of that material all came to me before starting on the book.

Now, quite naturally, during my journey as a Christian I have inevitably been influenced by others, but, as far as I have been able to, I have been selective, and of more recent times my guide has always been the Bible itself. Thus I trust that this book is totally the result of being led by the Spirit.

Therefore the process is rather one of being prompted by my spirit—I take it that the Holy Spirit previously prompts my spirit—to some somewhat strange situation in the Bible passage that I happen to be reading at the time, and I then look further into that situation to see what the writer is really wanting me to understand by it. This is usually a process of applying logic to it, and, of course, looking deeper into the meaning of the words that are used.

We must always remember that we are dealing with spiritual concepts, but have to use words to describe them which are defined and picked originally to deal with physical things and the use of them will certainly point initially to physical ideas. This inevitably applies to the Bible text, and we must be aware of it. Thus, when trying to see what the writer was really saying we must dig quite deep. If these words are Greek ones then, having looked at the Greek in my interlinear New Testament, I use a lexicon to find the various meanings of the words that are used. If they are Old Testament words, then I have to rely on what I can get from Strong and on any NIV Study Bible notes. And the result, in both Greek and Hebrew texts, is at times not what I have previously been led to believe.

The end result is what you can read in my book. I have found that it has produced a completely self-consistent story and does not anywhere go against what I read in the Bible. That last point is, of course, one of my major tests as to the veracity of what I have arrived at.

In fact, I have found that the writings of the apostle Paul in general all fit more naturally if taken in the context of my own findings. In other words, I would say that he also had come to the same conclusions that I have, and thus believed the same things that I do, which is very gratifying.

The Book Itself

Within the book almost all the quotations originally came from the NIV, which has become my favourite for two main reasons. First of all I find it a very easy version to read out loud, and I have made it my practice always to do so in the case of biblical texts. This I do because the Bible itself tells us that faith comes from hearing the word of God (see Romans 10:17), and in any case one never knows just who might be listening. Even if it is only the powers of evil, it does no harm to remind them of what it contains! The other reason is that the NIV falls very neatly between a literal translation, which is rather difficult to understand, and a paraphrased version, which, though easy to make sense of, only gives you one interpretation. Since, however, realising that only 500 verses may be reproduced without special permission at least in the older editions which I am using, I have spread the net wider, resulting in taking them largely from the AV, and, to a lesser extent, from the NIV, RSV, and NKJV.

The NIV, along with many other translations, renders the divine name YHWH, which the Jews came to consider too holy for them to utter, as LORD (ie all in capitals), as its preface points out. But YHWH, or rather what it represents, is the name of God by which he wished to be known and therefore, as a name, should surely be indicated as such, and not be put as a description, which is what the word LORD really is. And furthermore, I have discovered that very many Christians, when reading and then discussing a passage will recognise any use of any form of the word ‘lord’ as referring to Jesus. This of course hides any real purpose that the original writer had in using that particular form of the word in the verse concerned. Of course this problem does not arise in the New Testament, where the words God or Father are used instead of his name Yahweh.

For these reasons I use it myself in its most probably correct English rendering of Yahweh, according to the NIV Study Bible. I hope that this does not offend any person hearing me or reading this book. I must add though that because of copyright restrictions I have not changed versions other than the AV, and if I’ve modified it, I have named it ‘AV?’.

I have also refrained from using capitalised forms of any pronouns that I use for the Persons of the Godhead, following the practice of the NIV, in general because they tend to make the text awkward, or perhaps even worse, difficult to read because of the capital letters that appear all over the place. However, when it comes to words like Father, Son etc. I look upon them as proper names and therefore I have rendered them using capital initial letters.

In the body of the book as a whole you will find that I put forward in many places interpretations and explanations which seem to be different from those normally used. Now some people might find difficulty in accepting them simply for that reason, and therefore I will try to give you, hopefully, some justification for my actions.

First of all I believe in God as the rest of this book indicates. I not only do that, but I also believe that the Bible is true and that it is the word of God himself to us all. I have actually reached the point of being totally convinced of these things and feel now that I know it to be true. This is so partly because the more I have read the Bible the more I have found it throughout to be most intricately interconnected and never inconsistent with itself, and I feel that it is so to such an extent as to be way beyond the abilities of mankind. I do not think this applies necessarily to translations, but that it does apply to the most original texts we have in the nearest to the original language, which, of course, could perhaps be a translation itself.

Now God is spirit and is telling us about spiritual truths. But, as I said earlier, he has to make use of language that we understand, and that language is designed to describe things around us which are of course physical and not spiritual. He therefore is not using words in their usual sense but still has to indicate somehow that this is so. This is a problem but I think he gets round it in this way. He provides something which for some reason does not seem quite right. I feel therefore that we must stop whenever something does not seem to ‘fit’ and must then widen our normal perspective to look for some possible spiritual or perhaps other unusual explanation. We must naturally be open to anything, provided of course that it does not contravene the rest of scripture.

This then is what I believe I have done—with an open mind. It has come up with some amazing conclusions, which I hope now you will be more ready to accept. But in the end you will have to make up your own mind and I do not really care which way that may be. I have done the best that I could.

And so, because this story contains almost entirely text which deals with spiritual truths, and though the logic is all in statements written in physical language, the premises to the arguments frequently are only understood by people who are filled with the Spirit of God. This, of course, will rather reduce the number of readers who will accept what I have deduced from the Bible. I am, of course, extremely sorry about that fact though I can only write what I truly believe the Bible is saying.

Who Am I?

I hope that that rather long explanation gives to you some insight into the process by which this writing journey developed. But now I propose to give you a little information about my personal religeous background. I became a Christian in early 1980 at the age of fifty-six, but before that was a very active member of a small Anglican church, being involved in many things, among which I preached and, at the same time, conducted a teaching service for families, an outcome of a thriving Sunday School which I had led. I had not given my life to the Lord, but I did get during that time a small measure of knowledge of what the Bible contained. It was a start, but just could not compare with that which I was later to receive from God through the teaching of dedicated and inspired preachers and others, and many Christian books I read. Latterly, however, my source has been inspiration which is now coming directly from the Holy Spirit, coupled with my continuous reading of the Bible.

And yet it is very difficult, I find, for a Christian to work out just what has gone into forming his knowledge of the faith that he professes. It seems to have come from so many places, and so many other Christians have had, perhaps unwittingly, an input into it, that any attempt to thank them is impossible. Some sources, of course, stand out in one’s memory, but many a vital snippet will have been taken in without knowing it. All that I can do is to mention those that stand out, and trust that the others, if indeed they realise that they should be included, will graciously excuse the omission of thanks.

My Thanks

I must say that a great deal of my early discipleship was helped immensely by the wonderful teaching I received from the Reverend Christopher Hill, who was at that time the leader of the Lamb of God Community in Brentwood, of which my wife and I became members. I have to thank him for some of the facts which I have included about the Passover, and, in particular the way the seating was arranged at that meal, which shows us something of the personality of Jesus himself. He also gave to me, at least, an introduction to the fatherhood of our God Yahweh which really is part of the main theme of this book. If I had not had his teaching early on, I doubt if I would have arrived where I have. But, having said that, his greatest influence for me didn’t come from his words, but rather from an action, for he asked David Matthews, leader of a local church, to speak to us on the subject of having a quiet time. And one of the things David impressed upon us was the immense benefit to be obtained from reading the Bible in its entirety each year, introducing us to the new, at that time, through-the-year Living Bible. As a result I started doing this straight away, switching to the NIV when its version came out in 1988. I cannot recommend the practice too highly.

My wife and I left the Community in 1988 to come to live in Somerset and started going to the New Covenant Church in Shaftesbury, led by Clive Jackson. To him, in a way, I owe all that I have received of late, because he, from the end of June 1994, led that church to receive from the resultant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, following a visit to Toronto. I say with much gratitude that I have received from God such an abundance since that time, realising more and more the depth of his love for me, and increasing considerably my love for him. Among other things, my eyes have been opened to new meanings of the Scriptures, new to me at least, and this writing is the result, to a very large extent.

The subject matter of Part 9 entitled ‘Eternal Life’ stems, in fact, from the word preached by Dr Steven Wood, who was, until some time ago, leading a small church in Wells, but after the Toronto outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for a while came to Shaftesbury, and, from time to time, preached at outpouring meetings. On one occasion Steven talked on the subject of ‘the walking on the water’ episode in Matthew’s gospel, and that and a subsequent chat with him gave to me the realisation that the laws of the spiritual and physical realms both exist at the same time and in the same place. That particular Part, of course, depends on that.

But in the final analysis, God Almighty is the One to whom all my thanks go. All the revelation which has come to me originates with him. Without him I would have received nothing, for all those who have helped me in any way did so as the result of the Lord’s leading. And so to Yahweh, the Almighty God, go all my thanks and all of this effort of mine is dedicated to his glory, and his alone.

The Book Format

The whole of this book is divided into ten main parts plus two appendices, namely:

Part 1: ‘How It All Began’

Part 2: ‘The Birth’

Part 3: ‘Early Education’

Part 4: ‘A Teacher Comes’

Part 5: ‘Death Of The Teacher’

Part 6: ‘The Aftermath’

Part 7: ‘Problems And Solutions’

Part 8: ‘A New Creation’

Part 9: ‘Eternal Life’

Part 10: ‘May They Be One’

Part A: ‘Appendices’

Part 1 attempts to set the scene for the rest of the book, Part 2 goes through the selection of the little group which God will work on, and Part 3 sees this group slowly learning what it means to obey. Part 4 shows us the Teacher Jesus, their Messiah, as he demonstrates to the Jews just what spiritual life is like. Part 5 looks at the death of Jesus, matching aspects of it with earlier events, Part 6 examines the events occurring immediately following the death of Jesus and then Part 7 describes the problems facing Yahweh in his quest to regain the position that Adam had enjoyed before sinning, and the wonderful solutions that our God produced. Part 8 looks at what one must do to avail oneself of the glorious gifts God offers us, Part 9 then sees Jesus teaching these people how to live the new life thus given, and in Part 10 I suggest what the Bible, by inference, seems to say the outcome will be.

I have also included two appendices as Part A, the first of which is concerned with what the most correct translation should be for a phrase which occurs many times in the gospels. Though the New Testament is written in Greek, this phrase is basically not a Greek one at all but a Hebrew one, and yet always seems to be translated as though it were a Greek one. It is rendered as ‘I tell you the truth’ in the NIV, and ‘Verily! Verily! I say unto you’ in the King James Bible. This puts the emphasis on the following statement instead of the previous one, but is that what’s intended, or what should it be? It sometimes does make a considerable difference. The second appendix concerns the somewhat unusual Israelite calendar, which was used in Jesus’ day, and is actually still in use, though in a rather modified form. It is, of course, quite interesting in itself, but is also significant to one of the chapters in Part 5, ‘Death Of The Teacher’, and so it’s included.

Jervois Firmin

Bruton, Somerset.

PART 1

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

CHAPTER 1-1

God And The Bible

Before You Begin

Before you begin to read my ideas of what the Bible is about, may I please strongly suggest that you read the Preface, if you have not already done so. For that will give you an idea of my approach, my aim, and in particular will indicate how I have proceeded.

The Real Bible Story

Now to begin, it’s a well known fact that the Bible is that book with the largest sales in the world, and yet the great majority of people haven’t the foggiest idea of what it contains. Of course, the name it’s received doesn’t exactly inspire one to look inside it, yet all it means is that it is a library of books in one volume. And again, the names of the two sections into which it is divided—Testaments—are not really designed to set your heart racing! Oh that it had never been divided in the first place! But that, after all, is only the result of its being written over many centuries, by many different authors belonging to two groups of people who started out as one group and who should really have remained as one, but didn’t—I’m referring, of course, to Jews and Christians. Yet this volume contains the most exciting and important story the world has ever known. Yes, I do mean one story. It’s a story that is vital to every one of us, and yet nowadays remarkably few people accept it either as being true or relevant. And yet it really is a TRUE story! It’s a story about a wonderful God, who loved all that he made, and went to extraordinary lengths to preserve it.

But maybe you say Well I don’t believe in God!

Is God Really There?

You are, of course, at liberty to believe anything you wish. But you must always realise that, whatever you decide to do, in no way does that change the reality of anything. You may live in a little world of your own, but it is a make-belief world, and the real world still exists around you. The same truth, of course, applies to all of us, no matter what we may believe!

Is God, then, an optional extra? Well, in a sort of way he is. For each one of us can choose the sort of world we live in, and that world may, or may not, contain a god. But the truth does not contain any options! It has no compromises! It is the TRUTH!

The Missing Factor

But there is a problem we have which keeps on rising in us, and that is simply that if we take a look at ourselves, we realise we have great difficulty in accepting something which seems to have no beginning. Now to find the solution to that problem, I believe that the starting point must actually be the one who is seeking the answer; the search just has to begin with me asking the question. For when we come to consider the things around us, we want to know just how they all began. Something inside us is dissatisfied, and therefore we say to ourselves, Isn’t it wonderful? I wonder how it all started. And this is, I believe, the real driving force behind most people’s hunt for a religeon which fills that gap. For they really need to fill it. And that situation has been with mankind all the time that Man has inhabited this earth.

Can Science Help?

Now a great many people in the western world feel that the answers all lie with science. Even the scientists themselves are searching for the origin of the universe in a continual process. I’m afraid, however, that they are going to be forever thwarted in their efforts.

Science itself can never search out a beginning to anything; it always has to come out of an existing situation. Even the ‘Big Bang’ has to start with an enormous energy bundle, even though there was nothing else! I realise that ‘bundle’ is an odd word to use, but it’s difficult to think of a suitable way to describe it—there is, after all nothing else but it—just energy! That energy, though, has to be provided from somewhere, and science is at a loss to say how it got there. If it ever comes up with a proposed answer, it will only be a step further back, and it will never reach the end!

You see, something inside any entity, such as we are inside this universe, can never claim to know, of its own accord, or from anything within that entity, how it came into existence from nothing, that is, how it truly began; note that even space itself has to begin somehow! Science is no use in this instance, the knowledge always having to be provided by Something or Someone outside of the entity. I put a capital letter for ‘Something’ and ‘Someone’ because it must, of necessity, be very much greater than anything ‘inside’. The ‘inside’ actually has to have its own ‘god’—some Being outside of itself—in order to begin its existence at all. And if we are to satisfy that human longing for a beginning, we too must come to the conclusion that ‘our’ God does indeed exist. God, and Creation, are necessities if there is going to be a true beginning.

The apostle Paul was aware of this, for he wrote in his letter to the Romans:-

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

(Rom 1:18-20 NIV)

So How Can We Know?

Since we cannot possibly deduce for ourselves how we came to be, how can we ever achieve what we seek and discover just what happened ‘at the beginning’?

Well, the answer to that question is simply ‘Ask’. Ask who? Ask the One who did it. You see, if you think of a picture, for example, the only one who can tell you all about its beginning is the one who drew it. In the same way, the only one who can tell you how the world and all around it came into being is the One who did it.

But It All Seems So ‘Forever’

Yet, though we may accept that God does exist and we must ask him, we can still think that everything seems to have existed forever—it appears to be a continuous process with no end and no beginning. How can we equate this seeming requirement within us for a beginning with the apparent ‘no beginning’? There’s only the one way; we’ve got to ask.

We require help, and the only One we can ask is, as I have said, the One who did it. But our God, so the Bible tells us, loved what he had made so much that he wanted us to know him, and so told us what we wanted to know without our ever needing to ask him. It is all in the Bible, which we, who believe, maintain that our God inspired into the hearts and minds of those he chose to write down his words. They are the result of inspiration by one Creator, but they also contain the mannerisms and marks of these chosen authors. Hence the appearance of them is different, but they are nonetheless God’s ‘words’. This is what the apostle Paul wrote in a letter to Timothy, his young fellow worker:-

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

(2Tim 3:16 AV)

In this way, we believe that they are a true statement of what happened.

A Possible Modern Example

Just imagine, for example, someone on a satellite orbiting the earth in the distant future, and which has been doing so for ages—he is the latest of many generations. The satellite seems to go round and round and never alters its course. Now suppose that person tries to decide where it all came from; would he ever imagine it was the result of a rocket being shot from the earth? And if the designer of the rocket had written a book describing it all and deposited it on the satellite, would the person believe the book? Lots of his fellows wouldn’t, but it would be true!

The Reality Of Creation

Now in our case, if you are having problems with this ‘truth’ which I have just claimed and are concerned that everything appears to have gone on and on for ever, I want to point out something concerning the Creation, which is usually overlooked by most people, yet has, I believe, an important but unexpected effect. And that is the statement that Adam was made a fully grown man in the prime of life. Now what this is saying is that Adam’s real life began part way through his apparent life—or, to put it another way, for someone outside of Adam his birth and upbringing would have to be deduced from his grown-up attitudes and behaviour, the same as is possible for any other adult. Because Adam was the only human made, then all others would be approximate copies of him so that he would be like us. He too would certainly have wondered where he came from. Furthermore, our God is a God of perfection and, since he is making a continuum, Adam must appear to be a natural conclusion to what has gone before, just as the things which follow must do likewise—and that would have to include everything, including even Adam’s memories! So I am convinced that God gave Adam a memory full of happenings in his apparent younger days, and it would thus provide all that he wanted at such a time, having been filled with appropriate things at his making—and yet in fact he had no birth, in the normal sense, or upbringing! Thus for Adam the start of his real life was a snapshot of an event in his apparent life, and that apparent life had to be deduced from the snapshot. Because this is so, it indicates that the whole of Creation would likewise be a snapshot in the apparently continuous process of its coming into existence.

The Evolving Picture

Evolution is therefore no longer able to explain our beginnings, because the ‘continuous’ process is seen not to exist in reality. For in a true snapshot all that would exist if the continuum was actually true would be there—such things as fossils, rocks etc., with the result that it would be the apparent past that was deduced, just as evolution theory falsely says it did in fact happen. Thus all those who seek an evolutionary explanation will simply pass through the actual beginning and continue into the apparent existence without noticing what they have actually done. And they will be completely unaware of the actual Creation! Things, I believe, were made even more difficult to deduce by a terrible thing that happened in the very early days, when the first man Adam rebelled against the one command that God had given him.

Nowt But Theory

There are, of course, no proofs for the ‘evolution’ assumption anyway, only theories! Darwin’s theory is simply a deduction from the snapshot details that God provided when he created everything. After all, he had to start somewhere in what was otherwise going to be a continuous process. And, if anything was left out as having finished, the result, as I have just said, would not have been a true snapshot. The scientific approach, however, cannot accept this sort of thing at all. The basic shortcoming of science, you see, is that it cannot accept a true origin of anything—it cannot conceive of anything coming out of nothing. As it is only observing things that already exist, it cannot say anything about the actual beginning of those things. Evolution of some sort, or the developing of one thing from another, is its only possibility, whether dramatic like the ‘big bang’, or otherwise, like most other things.

The Scientific Dilemma

A built-in problem that we forever face in our existence is that the nature of any energy originating from any source, be it nuclear, coal, wind etc., always decays to a lower form and ends up as heat which ultimately dies. It is because of this that continuous motion is impossible, and continua cannot truly exist. Everything just has to come to an end! And every end demands a beginning. But science can’t manage beginnings, so creation to science is impossible—therefore it can never support it! So all that results is a ‘chasing of one’s own tail’ by scientists the world over. But it is the nature of science itself which produces this situation and in no way does it indicate any problem with Creation. Science merely passes through the actual created beginning without noticing it, looking for something impossible! It’s not so much a matter of barking up the wrong tree as choosing one that isn’t there!

The Wrong Order

But there is one more thing that you might say is wrong with the Creation explanation. Things were said to be created in an order different from that which is deduced from the fossil record. But this is, of course, no problem at all. One is merely seeing in that record what Yahweh has decided that mankind should find. So the two differ simply because the actual way is different, and that we find in the Bible record.

However, it seems that what the Bible says happened at creation is not quite what most people imagine, as you can read later in chapter 1-2, and it does make quite a difference!

The Warning Of Yahweh

In mine ears said Yahweh, the Lord of hosts.

(Isa 5:9a AV?)

Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

(Isa 5:13-21 AV?)

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

(Isa 5:24-25 AV?)

Therefore just take heed of the warning God gives!

The Beginning Of The Story

The Bible therefore, the Creator’s word to us, has to be our only true source of information concerning these things. Now the first three chapters of the Bible deal with this beginning, and lead us into the continuum in which we seem to find ourselves. Thus, when we read the Bible, we ought really to be considering these chapters as though they were a preface—rather like some T.V. dramas, which ‘set the scene’ before the titles appear. But what happens there is all part of the story! If there is to be a break in the whole book, then the end of that part is, I believe, where it ought to come. Those three chapters tell us about the perfect world God made—and Man’s rejection of both it and God. The rest of the book—both Testaments—tell us about God’s rescue package, by which he aims to regain, not only Man, but the whole of his creation.

Getting To Know God Again

Yet lots of people tend to look on the Old Testament as though it were God’s first attempt at saving mankind. They seem to have the impression that God made a bad miscalculation, and that, when that failed, he had to try something else which is written in the New Testament. But if we look at the ‘preface’, i.e. the first three chapters, we can see that, by one decision, the relationship between God and Man went from perfection to non-existence. So we had somehow to get from the position of knowing nothing of God to the point where we desired to know nothing but God. We, of course, couldn’t even start to do it, but God could—and did!

You see, this wonderful book has actually been provided for us partly for the purpose of re-teaching us all about our God, and it’s set out somewhat like our basic education system, where the children pass through two schools, primary and secondary. The first does not complete the education, and the second is incomplete without the first. So the Old Testament is about the first part of the process which our merciful God then undertook. It tells us much, but not all, of what we can know about God, and, at the same time, tells us a lot about ourselves. In its pages we find spelled out that tendency to rebellion against God which is in all of us, and the news that God’s going to change us so that it is no longer there. The position into which we have got ourselves, through Adam, is one of subjection to sin, death, decay, sickness, curses, guilt, poverty, and rejection; but God’s rescue package deals with every one of them. The Old Testament tells us about God’s plans to free us from them, and the New Testament tells of its happening. I’ll say it again—it’s one story, and a wonderful one!

Do We Need The Old Testament?

The Old Testament also tells us about what’s going to happen in the New Testament, but do we really need that? Yes, indeed we do! You see, a lot of people don’t realise the importance of the Old Testament when interpreting the New Testament. They look upon the two ‘parts’ of the Bible as being totally separate from one another, whereas the real truth is that the first is pointless without the second, and the second is impossible to understand without the first. For in the Old Testament we find so much about Jesus, the reason he came, and what he achieved by dying on the cross, and then, in the New Testament is the happy ending missing from the Old Testament—the fulfilment of God’s magnificent plan.

CHAPTER 1-2

The Creation

Perhaps you think that God’s creation has already been dealt with, we know what the Bible says about it, and that nothing more needs to be added. But I believe that some clarification is necessary, and so I ask the question Just what was created? And that, you might say, is a silly question! Well I, for one, don’t believe that it is.

The Nature Of Creation

You see, I am convinced that the vast majority of people assume that what we see around us—all the physical objects and the very fact that our senses are geared entirely to detect these objects—are the actual substance of what God created. But is this in fact justifiable? And I can almost hear the clamour of Well of course it is! What else could it possibly mean?

Although it is obvious and straightforward to assume a physical creation, it is after all just as much a guess or theory as a spiritual one is. We have absolutely nothing in Scripture to indicate that the Creation was a physical one. And there are in fact one or two nasty inconsistencies in the physical assumption that must be reconciled if we are to arrive at a correct interpretation of the biblical account.

In God’s Image And Likeness

To begin with, just try to imagine the Creation situation—that is before Adam and Eve ate the fruit forbidden by God, and in fact before they were two people and were only one person, that is, Adam, and long before their spirits died, and even before then, that is, before even Adam was made—and ask yourself the question What kind of person, spirit or material, would God, who is Spirit, ideally create to be in his own image and likeness?, for he said, when he announced his intentions, Let us make man in our own image and likeness. Surely, the answer just has to be spirit, like the millions of angels God had already made. After all, one can hardly say that a material man could ever be considered to be made in the likeness of a spiritual one, could one? Don’t forget that Adam was made in both the image, that is to look like, and in the likeness, that is to be like, God. The two words used are important, but are often considered to mean the same thing. I certainly don’t think that they do!!

And surely a spiritual man would expect to exist in a spiritual world! Wouldn’t he?

Sons Of God

And now let’s consider the brothers for Jesus. Brothers for Jesus? you probably exclaim. Indeed yes, for Paul writes to the Romans the following, where the first ‘he’ is referring to our God Yahweh, of course:

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

(Rom 8:29 AV)

And Jesus is, according to the Bible, the Son of God. Surely therefore he was also spiritual, just like his Father. And then again, Paul, this time writing to the Christians in Philippi, says:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him

to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above

every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee

should bow,

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

(Phil 2:5-11 NIV)

So Jesus was, in very nature, God, or in other words, his natural state was the same as that of his Father, which is, of course, spiritual. This is just what one would have expected of a father’s son! What happened when he came into the world was, according to the Philippian statement of Paul, an entirely unexpected and amazing step that was taken to make Jesus as a man, which is, of course, physical. But it was done for a very special and unusual purpose which was that he should do, as a man, all that he did in his life on earth, and ultimately be executed and so die as a human being, necessary in order to restore the initial creation situation, which was brought about entirely by Adam’s action in eating the forbidden fruit.

Now, if before all this happened, and before even Creation happened, God decided to make ‘many brothers’ for his only Son, what would one expect the nature of those brothers to be, spirit or material? I hope that the answer is obvious!

And that, it seems, is exactly what happened! The whole creation just had to be a spiritual one!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

(Rom 8:28-30 AV)

And we will ultimately be like him again, which is, of course, spiritual! For God is surely aiming to get his creation back to how he made it in the first place and declared it to be very good!

Lower Than The Angels

Then again, Psalm 8 says:

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:"

(Ps 8:4-6 AV)

This was first, I believe, applied to Adam at his creation, and I would hardly think that if he were made in the physical realm, assuming that it existed at that time, it would be just ‘a little lower’ than those magnificent creatures in the spiritual realm, which is, after all, that realm in which God himself resides. That would be, I would say, at the very least an order of magnitude lower!

New Heaven And Earth

And finally, after Death, Hades, and Satan have all been disposed of, we read this:

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

(Rev 21:1-8 AV)

But why was it necessary to make everything new, as this quotation indicates?

But if the original creation was a spiritual one then it is obviously necessary to change its nature from physical to spiritual. And this is surely borne out by the following, which follows straight after the above:

"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."

(Rev 21:9-14 AV)

This city was, the Bible then tells us, 1,400 miles square and 1,400 miles high, that is half the width of the Atlantic Ocean!! That is some city, and I for one just cannot imagine it. And the gates of the city were each made out of a single pearl. There are other marvels as well. Surely such a city cannot be a physical one, but must be a spiritual one, about the limitations of which we have no information. Well, that is my contention anyway.

And this, I believe, is yet another reason for deducing that the original was spiritual. And if you argue that there